No Crown Upon This Head
by Della19
Summary: Regina is nine when her mother dies. She cries at her funeral, even though she isn't sure why. Regina loved her, but mother was terribly cruel-she would have spent the rest of her life making her unhappy. Regina/Daniel happily ever after AU.


No Crown Upon This Head

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Obviously.

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"_My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy."_

-William Shakespeare

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Regina is nine when her mother dies.

She cries at her funeral, even though she isn't sure why. Regina loved her, this is true, but mother was never truly happy with her, and terribly cruel. Regina knows that she would have spent the rest of her life making her unhappy.

But she is gone now-now it is just her father and Regina, and living to be themselves-the people _they_ want to be, not the people mother would have made them.

Regina is looking forward to it.

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Regina is sixteen when she realizes that she is beautiful.

This is not a boast-she is not bragging-rather it is an academic fact. Her hair and her eyes and her body have developed from something childlike and gangly into something beautiful and womanly and striking, the kind of beauty gifted to few.

Regina couldn't care less about her beauty.

Men seem to disagree.

Boys around town stop to look at her now-whistle at her admirably as she walks by. Even the knights and occasional noblemen that grace their town give her a second glance, eyes dark with lusts and offers that Regina never sticks around long enough to let them voice.

Henry notices though, and ever the doting father he voices them one night, saying, "You could marry one of them," his voice displaying nothing but truth and kindness, "live a life you'll never have here."

"I don't want riches, I just want to be myself," Regina replies, because she doesn't believe that all the riches in the world could make her happier than the feeling of the wind through her hair when she rides, or the freedom of wearing breeches when she wants.

"Whatever makes you happy, my dear," her father says, and means it, and that is the end of that.

This is one of the many, _many_ reasons why Regina loves her father.

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Regina is twenty when she falls in love.

His name is Daniel, and he works for them as a stable boy. At first he hardly spoke to her, could barely meet her eyes, and Regina hadn't thought much of him.

But then one of their horses, a new acquisition who'd had a hard life had panicked, hooves kicking dangerously as it tried to bolt, and Daniel, quiet Daniel who had never even looked her in the eye hadn't hesitated, throwing himself into the enclosure and calming the terrified animal with soft words and gentle touches, but his eyes, dark and intent had never left her own.

Regina had been hooked from that point on, and Regina is a determined woman, who goes after what she wants.

Daniel hadn't stood a chance.

Although Regina suspects he might not have fought all that hard-read _at all_.

It's not a thought that bothers her.

He calls her _my lady_, even though she is no one's lady, and brings her ripe red apples-slices them and feed them to her, and his fingers brush her mouth and Regina's stomach flutters in response.

He kisses her like she's the most precious thing alive-like she's a princess or a queen, even those hers is a head that will never wear a crown.

"I love you," she tells him, as they curl together under the shade of an apple tree, her heart so full of love for him that she can no longer contain it.

"I can't give you the things you deserve," he says, voice serious, but his hands never stop tracing patterns over her sides, and so Regina does what she has always done-be herself and reaches for what _she_ wants.

"I only want love," she says, simple and true, looking him straight in the eye, "can you give me that?"

"Yes," he says, kisses her slowly and heart-meltingly, and when he draws back, the love in his eyes makes Regina's heart sing, "Yes I can."

Daniel asks her father for her hand later that afternoon, and afterwards her father beckons her into his study and asks her only one question.

"Is this what you want my dear?" He queries, voice soft with love her but eyes serious, as a good father should be, and Regina replies with the only answer she knows he'll accept.

"He makes me happy, Papa," she says simply, and it is the truth. No riches will ever make her happier than Daniel and true love.

"Then you should marry him," he father says, a blessing and permission all wrapped up into one, and Regina throws her arms around and hugs him.

And so she does.

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Regina is twenty-four when she becomes a mother.

Pregnancy was a wondrous but strange thing, and birth was a painful nightmare, but it is all worth it to hold the miracle that is her daughter. To count her little fingers and toes and to realize that this is a little person, half Daniel and half herself, and yet greater than the sum of her parts.

Regina has _never_ felt love like this.

"Look at what we did," Daniel says, voice awestruck and choked with love and tears as he stares at their daughter, and Regina can't help but do the same.

"Hello Mary," she croons to the babe, half asleep on her chest, her own tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, "I'm your mother and this is your father and we love you."

I will _always_ love you, she vows fiercely, love you like the mother you deserve. You will never want for happiness or love, no matter what.

She grips Daniel's hand with one of her own, and trails the other one down the baby smooth skin of her daughter's face, and smiles.

This, her family, is the only crown she will ever need.

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Regina is thirty-five when she knows she's living her happily ever.

She does not have jewels or fine gowns or a castle, but she has a husband she loves, and children she adores, and a life she would not trade for anything.

A husband, who is currently looking at her like he knows a secret that she doesn't.

"What is it?" She asks, voice light, because the teasing light in his eyes tells her that it's nothing serious or bad.

"Some scandal," he says, with the relish of someone who has heard particularly good gossip, but his voice is not unkind. "The princess-Snow something-" and here Regina smirks softly, because Daniel is adorably terrible with names, "was pledged to marry that prince-what's his name from the neighboring kingdom-but she fell in love and married some peasant stable boy instead, who ended up being the prince's secret twin brother. It's created quite an uproar."

"Good for her," Regina says, with a soft, secret smile just for him, meaning every word, "I've always thought stable boys were more charming than princes anyways."

The kiss he gives her-warm and _so_ full of love-only confirms that theory in her mind.

Somewhere there is a princess with skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood and her Charming in love, and an imp who lets the woman he loves go, and then welcomes her back when she loves him and returns, having met no woman on the road. Somewhere a huntsman lives happily in the woods, and gives his heart not to a vengeful Queen but to a girl that is sometimes also a wolf, who gives him her own in return. Somewhere a hatter plays with his daughter, happily sipping tea, no white rabbit in sight, and somewhere people live happily ever after.

But these things are no business of Regina's.

Once upon a time there was a princess who fell off her horse, a mother who killed her daughter's true love for riches, and an Evil Queen bent on revenge and destroying other's happiness.

Now there is just Regina, wife of Daniel, mother of Mary and Samuel, daughter of Henry, who loves his grandchildren more than anything in the world.

They are not rich, not royal, but they have each other.

They are happy.

It is _more_ than enough.

It is everything.

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FIN

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A/N: Yeah…I have no idea what this is. Seriously, IDEK guy! I was supposed to be writing the last chapter of my Rumbelle baby fic This Budding Rose and then this just…happened. Freakin' plot bunnies. So I give you, the happy ending of Daniel and Regina, because frankly they (pre-evil Regina at least) deserve one, and I'm pretty sure the show isn't going to give them one, what with Daniel being all dead and Regina being all Evil and such. As always, enjoy, and reviews and constructive criticism are welcome.


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